By combining several different learning methods and a heap
of fun, Hiragana Pixel Party is quite possibly the most fun way to
learn the
Japanese alphabet around. Even if you aren’t interested in learning Japanese
at all, the game stands on it’s own as an
exciting and engaging experience.

The basic premise is simple:

– LISTEN to and read the characters displayed on screen.

– TAP the correct Japanese characters in time with the music as they
appear on screen.

Players are engaged in many
ways:

– MEMORY (remember the order of the characters, and learn their
translations)

– SOUND (hear the sounds of the letters spoken by a native Japanese
speaker to engage your auditory senses)

– REACTIONS (quickly find the correct characters to tap)

– RHYTHM (Tap in time with the music, or work out when to tap based
on the obstacles in the level)

– EPIC! (The games chip-tune soundtrack and pixel art style will
have you wishing it was 1994)

The game features both Hiragana and Katakana, along with 6
pieces of music to play along to. Over the course of well over 200 missions,
players should have no problem picking up the skills required to read and
pronounce any Japanese word written in these alphabets.

In the game’s first 12 levels (available to play at no cost)
players will learn 5 characters…

How have you done?

いい – This means “good” or “nice”.

いいえ – This means “no” – Note: When two characters of the same type are next to each other, you pronounce the sound for twice the length of time. In this case i-i-e (or eeee – eh!).

あい – This means “love”.

あう – This means “to meet”.

いう – This means “to speak”.

いえ – This means “house”.

あお – This means “blue”.

Once you start learning katakana you can really start to
impress people, because not only will you be reading you will also understand
what you are reading! Foreign words are written in Katakana, and these tend to be English:

ギ – Gi

タ – Ta

ー – This character is used to extend the
sound of the previous one so you end up with Gitaa or as it is spelled in English, "Guitar".

タ – Ta

ク – Ku>

シ – Shi

ー – (extended)

Which reads as Takushii, which means Taxi! It’s a lot of fun
reading these words. You might have no idea what a word is until you read it
out loud, then suddenly you hear yourself saying something very familiar!